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GridWise Alliance GridWise Alliance Makes Stance on Role Battery Energy Storage Will Play in Modernization of Our Electric Infrastructure

July 14, 2017

The GridWise Alliance, an organization that specializes in convening energy stakeholders on the most pressing grid modernization activities, today (7/13) released a whitepaper aimed at improving the conversation about battery energy storage applications on the electric grid. The paper highlights recommendations for policy makers and regulators as they prepare to overcome the challenges to widespread implementation of energy storage technologies.

The Alliance presents a list of 11 recommendations to address these challenges, including:

Policy makers must ensure that batteries can offer all of the services they are technically capable of offering and be compensated fairly for those multiple services.

Batteries with a primary purpose of supporting the transmission or distribution system should be allowed to be classified as transmission or distributions assets, respectively.

Policy makers should allow EDC-owned and rate-based battery projects to participate in the energy, capacity and ancillary services markets.

"Our organization has always been at the forefront of key conversations related to grid modernization," said Steve Hauser, CEO of the GridWise Alliance. "Today, one of those key conversations centers on batteries. This whitepaper enables our uniquely diverse membership to inform that conversation in the states and at the national level."

The whitepaper supports the Alliance's recommendations by detailing the benefits of energy storage from economic, grid operations and customer service, and policy and workforce perspectives.

"Policy makers are being asked to make very important decisions that will have implications on the public and on the potential growth of this innovative new clean energy industry," added Ladeene Freimuth, Policy Director for the GridWise Alliance. "As an organization representing utilities and RTOs, technology and service providers, and academia, we have a responsibility to provide them the tools to make those decisions efficiently for the benefit of all consumers today and tomorrow.

In the coming months, the GridWise Alliance plans to release additional whitepapers on other topics including best practices and lessons learned from the Alliance's Grid Modernization Index (GMI), innovative rate designs, and business models related to grid modernization.

About GridWise Alliance

The GridWise Alliance (GWA) represents the broad and diverse stakeholders that design, build and operate the electric grid. Since 2003, the Alliance has been at the forefront of educating legislators and regulators about the critical need to modernize our nation's electricity system.